Accident - Advice??

Lord Trollington

Mate of mine ran into the back of a car the other day, pulling out of a T junction.

There was a car in front of him, who pulled out left onto the T junction in town and he was pulling across to the far side of the street to park, but stopped in the middle of the manouver as there was car coming from his left which stopped him from crossing onto the far side of the street.

My mate was also pulling out left onto the junction, but was looking right and didnt see the man in front stopped to park onto the far side of the street and he tipped into the back of him as he and pulled out.

So he wasnt going too fast. Starting off....

But the main part of the story is that my mate knows this lad, he is from the same town and my mate told him rather than hold up the traffic and it was only a minor dent that he'd talk to him later that day, thinking that that the repair would be simple as pulling the dent out or even not doing it at all.

The man Drives a 95 Vectra 2.0 Diesel, with 250k miles on the clock, owns it from new.Has a hitch on it which stopped most of the force. the car has had a dogs life and has dents and scratches all over the car. Its doesnt owe him a penny and he still drives the stones out of it. Mate drives a jeep so it hit his boot lid high enough up so left a dent.

The man went and priced the dent in a body shop apparently and claimed that the repair of it would cost Eur1500.
The car is not even worth that much, the car is not worth eur100.
i work in the motor industry and trade buyers wouldnt even touch that car, in fact the car really has no value on it whatso ever becasue no one would buy it.
If you were to replace the boot and respray it, it would firstly look out of place as there is not a panel on the whole car that hasnt already been painted and that doesnt need more paint now.

So its obvious that the man is pulling a fast one.

i actually thought pretty highly of this man before all this but he has gone completely down in my estimation.

What should my mate so about the whole situation, what do other people on here think he should do?

i know possibly on a newer car the repair of it might possibly cost that much, but this car a 15 year old Vectra with 250k miles on the clock, its not economically viable to repair that car to the value of eur1500.

Suggestions good or bad are welcome, opinion??

Atlantic Dawn

Best thing to do is come to the price of what the car was worth pre-accident which I would say would be in the 100's and pay him that.

Barr

Put it through the insurance , not a hope an assessor would offer 1,500 for that car.

Lord Trollington

Thats what i would have thought, an assessor wouldnt even entertain that, i think he would in fact laugh if he was called down to look at this car and he see's the state it is in.

The car is 15 years old, i see it everyday. He has attempted his own paint jobs on the car with similar colour gloss paint that you would paint your house door with that is no joke or exaggeration.

Every panel on the car is already a different colour to the other. He constantly tows trailers with it and the rear bumper is cracked everywhere from hitting the trailer off it when attaching it to the tow bar.

It not like the car is a 15 year old mint example garaged every night and only driven to the shop and back, as i said its had dogs abuse, the paint that is original on it has faded even making the fresh paint work look worse.

Toots

What would the effect be on his NCB if he goes through the insurance?

Tigger

monkey sorts a lot

Berty

There is no record of the crash whatsoever, nobody reported it and nobody investigated it.

Tell him that unless it goes to YOUR RECOMMENDED panel beater that he can go swing for it.

Ask here for recommendations or in your boards.ie region forums.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=77

Bluetonic

Berty wrote: »

There is no record of the crash whatsoever, nobody reported it and nobody investigated it.

Tell him that unless it goes to YOUR RECOMMENDED panel beater that he can go swing for it.

Hopefully people who offer advice like this after few and far between in the world.

dirtydiesel

Tell the guy its going through the insurance. They will most likely pay out book value of car, €100 if his lucky and I bet he knows this.
Second option is to offer him €100 compo and write it down and get him to sign it saying this is the issue sorted in full.
Give him a woodies voucher so he can buy more red gloss and filler.

thebiglad

Balance it up, putting claim through insurance will result in some loss of NCB and possibly an increased premium or restricted choice of quotes at renewal due to claims experience.

Reporting/claiming from insurance is not a good option

Against that your mate is 100% liable and it iis really down to cost.

Anyone right minded person would not pay €1,500 to fix a car (even if that is the real cost of repair) which is worth hundreds at best.

Open up a sensible negotiation and be prepared to pay €500 - just start with a couple of hundred and work up.

Lord Trollington

The car is worthless, there is not a right minded person that would actually but the car so it is worthless.
Its 15 years old.
You would buy a 2000 year vectra diesel with 150k miles on the clock for 300 or 400 euro.

Giving him €500 or anything near it is not an option to be honest.

I would be inclined to say go throught the insurance, get the assessor out and see what he thinks, he might decide the vehicle is beyond economical repair.

You dont have to proceed with the claim and you can call the mans bluff also.

biko

Have a local panel beater fix dent and your mate pays. It should come to 20-30.

Max Headroom

Out of interest ,was the vectra "all legal" etc..ie. tax ,NCT up to date.....;)

Del2005

Your mate hit his car. He's come back with a price for repair which your friend isn't happy with. Your friend has no option but to repair or replace the car and the other person has the choice of garage not your friend. The price he pays is all that counts.

The fact that the car is a heap of sh!te doesn't enter into it, it is the other persons car and he was hit by your friend. How he drove or treated it prior to your mate driving into it doesn't mater, your friend still hit him.

Insurance is there to get you back to the same condition as before and not to benefit from it, but you shouldn't loose out due to being hit.

The options to your friend are to offer some money(more then €100 and a lot less then €1500), buy them a similar car or go through their insurance. They'll have to weight up the options but don't forget that if your friend doesn't make a decent offer that theirs up to 5 years for a personal injury claim to be entered*



* Not that I'm condoning that, but if someone comes back with a €1500 quote to fix a sh!t heap then they may think like that.

flamegrill

I'd hazard a guess and say it's worth 1500 quid minimum. Don't kill me, I'll explain. If he was to scrap it, he'll get 1500 quid minimum.

The insurance won't touch it as others have said. If he goes through the insurance the "repairs" probably won't be more than his excess. So at a bare minimum tell him to offer upto the amount of his excess. Normally this is around 300 quid, but varys depending on insurer.

Paul

lau1247

Assuming another similar spec (make, size etc) is cheaper than the cost he quoted (Probably best to do some research first)

can you not just call the guy up.. tell him that the value he had assessed is blown out of proportion and state a more appropriate cost.. If he doesn't agree, inform him that you'll think about it and get back to him the next day as whether to pay yourself or through insurance.. hint that insurance will likely to give him XXX amount (As you confidently know is the case)..

Be prepare to go through with it though if it has to come to that.. good luck

Mr. Presentable

It's worth 1500 on the scrappage..... I would be fearful of a personal injury claim.

I'd say, small town, they can reach a compromise. Say 750.00. Important, your mate ran into the back of a car - he's lucky it wasn't a nice one or the victim wasn't immediately litigious.